


Marriage

by bottledyarn



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-25
Updated: 2012-05-25
Packaged: 2017-11-19 13:30:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/573798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bottledyarn/pseuds/bottledyarn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn and Harry try to save their marriage for their kid's sake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marriage

**Author's Note:**

> Originally by request on my tumblr.

            Harry knew that their marriage was falling apart. It was startlingly obvious.  Maybe not to everyone else- neither of them were cheating or anything like that…it was just less spectacular than it had been at the beginning, and both of them were just tired.  It actually scared Harry more than something like cheating would- he felt like he was out of control, because he was part of the problem.  He didn’t feel like running around with Zayn all the time- sometimes he would rather sit around doing nothing than be with Zayn.

            The only time they would smile was at their daughter, Eira.  They’d adopted her three years back, and she was perfect.  Harry realized that without her, they’d probably would have gotten divorced out of sheer boredom years earlier.  Harry loved Zayn, he did.  And he knew that Zayn loved him, too.  It was just so mediocre and dull all the time.

            Harry didn’t want it to end- no matter how boring the marriage was.  He could make it more fun; make it the same way it used to be. He had to, for Eira.  And he had an idea.

            Harry started out small, by making an extravagant breakfast the way he used to.  He woke up every morning for a week and made eggs and pancakes instead of the usual cereal that they each glumly poured. Zayn was confused, stumbling down the stairs and sniffing, trying to identify the smell.

            The first day, when Zayn realized that Harry had made breakfast, he smiled slightly and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek, thanking him before eating with Harry for once.  After a week of it, Zayn finally asked what this was about.

            “I’m tired of mediocrity,” Harry said. “So I’m going to smash the mediocrity out of this.”

            Zayn smiled- almost a real smile, it nearly reached his eyes. “I’ll help.”

            Harry knew that buying gifts was definitely not the way to go- they both had money, it would be meaningless.  So instead, Harry started hiding chocolates around the house.  Eira found a few, but Harry didn’t mind- as long as one of the people he loved was taking joy from it, he didn’t care. Zayn started finding them after a while- Harry could hear Zayn’s light laugh every time he did.  Zayn would enter the room Harry was in with the chocolate in his hand, unwrapping it to eat.

            For a while, Harry thought that Zayn had decided not to do anything to bring back the fun in the marriage. But then Harry got home from grocery shopping one day, Eira on his hip, and walked through the house to get to the kitchen.  After dropping off a bag on the counter, he went into the living room to put Eira on the couch and was stopped by a sea of balloons. 

            Zayn was sitting on the couch, empty bags from balloons littering the cushions around them. His face was red, probably from the inflating rather than embarrassment.  The balloons covered the entire floor and were several layers deep. Harry waded through them, putting Eira down on the armchair, trying to keep her from getting lost in the balloons.

            Zayn grinned and held out a pair of oven mitts to Harry. They had to be new, as Harry had never seen them before.  Harry put them on and realized that they had little pins stuck through them to the outside.  Zayn put a pair on Eira, telling her to only touch the balloons.  She was fairly smart, and knew not to hit herself with the gloves.  Finally Zayn put on a pair himself and reached out to a balloon, popping it. 

            Eira laughed and popped one herself, giggling before sliding into the balloons and popping several at once.

            Harry popped one too, and soon enough the noise was deafening, the popping coming from all around.  Harry wasn’t sure when he started laughing, but eventually he had to roll out of the balloon sea and take off the gloves before pushing at his stomach, trying to contain his laughter.

            “My stomach hurts!” he said, laughing harder when Zayn popped a balloon next to his head. “Stop, stop!”

            Things picked up slightly after that- Zayn and Harry would each try to one-up the other, making each surprise more spectacular than the last.

            It went on for two months until Harry finally realized that their marriage was normal again- they smiled again, ate together, played games…it wasn’t exactly the same as before; they weren’t all over each other. But Harry finally felt like they were a family, rather than two married guys living with a child.

            Harry wasn’t afraid of their marriage being a mistake anymore- he just realized that they had been expecting marriage to be like dating, full of passion and romance. But it was less like simply living with your love than it was living for your love.


End file.
